COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: The Ongoing, Hyperreal Saga of a Deadly Epidemic and Infodemic

This chapter examines the phenomenon of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy that has frustrated scientists around the world on the front lines battling the worst public health crisis since the advent of modern medicine. The alternative facts of the anti-vaccination movement within disinformational filter bubbles are not innocent forms of hyperreal reverie, because many people who refused to get vaccinated have died unnecessarily. Not only are the mortal repercussions of post-factual metanarratives evident in the context of anthropogenic climate change, but the deadly effects of anti-science simulacra have also decimated the human population in a post-pandemic world. The pervasive truth claim that COVID-19 is either a hoax or a minor illness that has been blown out of proportion has been soundly discredited by the scientific community. However, the number of deaths attributed to this anti-science knowledge claim illustrates the perils of not being able to establish the same sense of a socially constructed reality predicated upon evidence. Given that scientists such as Anthony Fauci hypothesize that widespread environmental degradation in the Anthropocene will likely result in future outbreaks, finding a way to dislodge alternative facts before they are established as a type of (post-) truth is more paramount than ever.